The phrase “global space governance” refers to a group of international, regional, or national laws as well as regulatory organisations, policies, and procedures for directing or controlling space-related matters or activities.
The tools, institutions, and mechanisms, national laws, rules, technical standards, and procedures, codes of conduct, and steps to foster confidence among space-faring players are also included. All of these are considered, created, and put into practise at different levels of government.
Together, these procedures make it possible to create, monitor compliance with, and enforce space activities. But how well do these controls work in stopping Chinese rocket debris from hitting the planet or stopping Russian projectile-firing satellite tests? The response is insufficiently.
International space law is typically divided into two groups:
1) Non-binding agreements that are meant to express voluntary, non-normative and/or aspirational ideas that may be too difficult to establish worldwide consensus on.
2) Binding or normative instruments, such as treaties, standards, and state regulations. The current global space governance system is mostly composed of these two different kinds of agreements.
The Cold War era gave rise to global space governance since few entities, mainly the United States (US) and the Soviet Union, had access to launch or spaceflight capabilities. However, 72 countries claim to have space agencies today, and 14 are able to send satellites into orbit.
This regrettably means that low-to-middle income nations were mostly excluded from drafting the regulations that are still in force more than 50 years later.
Additionally, the five United Nations (U.N.) space treaties that serve as the basis for international space administration were created in their respective eras, which explains their emphasis on preventing the military and colonisation of space.
The future of space administration will need to take into account new dangers brought on by fresh changes to the global order, nevertheless, given the quick rate of space development. It will be difficult to strike the right balance between promoting democratisation, fostering commercialisation, and reining in militarization.
